Kimi Raikkonen says Alfa Romeo cannot take much satisfaction from finishing ahead of Ferrari at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix, labelling his result “quite disappointing.”
Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo car was the first Ferrari-powered machine across the line at Spa-Francorchamps, as he bested both Ferrari and Haas drivers.
But Raikkonen was unable to score a top 10 finish for the eighth successive event as he classified only 12th at a venue where he scored four victories in the 2000s.
“No, because this is still disappointing,” said Raikkonen on whether finishing clear of the Ferraris was positive. “OK, when you are 16th or something and far away, it’s worse, but still….
“I think the car was as good as it could be, just lacking the top speed to get the result we wanted.
“Other than that, the anti-stall came in at the start and I lost places, but I don’t know if that made any difference for the end result.
“After that the car had good speed until I got stuck behind the Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri].
“I felt I had more speed than him in the middle part of the track but we never got to get a run on him. The car was pretty good on the middle sector, just not fast enough on the other two.
Raikkonen expressed doubt that Alfa Romeo’s predicament will be vastly improved at Monza this weekend.
“We need to wait and see how it is there, I expect it won’t be very easy, but we’ll do our best whatever we have,” he said.
“It can be similar than here, better or worse, I don’t know. We just need to go there, do our best, get the best out of the car and then we’ll see what we get.”
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